Our Old Man

Our old man (Hayden, not Jeremy) has been slowing down lately. He's 11 years old and we've had him since we before we were married.

Last week he spent a night in the emergency animal hospital after gasping and struggling to breathe for a few hours. Turns out he is in the beginnings of heart failure.

He was so bad off that particular night, we weren't sure what the outcome would be. Apparently he had a lot of fluid around his heart and was only using 20% of his lung function which is why he was gasping.

They were able to get the fluid off using a diuretic and oxygen and the Old Man is now much much better. He still needs to take some meds to keep things working properly, and will be on the slow decline from now on.

But at the moment he is acting normal and hanging in there. Our vet gave us the option of having him seen by an expensive specialist from Purdue and we've opted not to. For now we'll medicate him and love him.